After just four blockbuster films, the newest reboot of the beloved Godzilla multimedia empire seems to be lying dormant. After the original Kaiju's landmark battle with King Kong, it may seem like escalation is impossible, but there's still room for these massive beasts in the hearts of the fan base.
After Legendary Pictures and The Raid: Redemption director Gareth Edwards rebooted Godzilla in 2014, fans were buzzing to see where the new universe could go. They brought back the great ape in King Kong: Skull Island, let him face off against some of his iconic enemies in King of the Monsters and pit the icons against each other once and for all in Godzilla vs. Kong. After all that excitement, there's an anime on the way and a currently unknown live-action show in the works, but no new films have been announced.
There are over thirty Godzilla films created in Japan, divided into four eras with drastically different aesthetics and tones. Godzilla has faced off against countless enemy kaiju, some of whom have gone on to become fan favorites, others of whom faded as quickly as they appeared. With everything the classic monster has accomplished, it's fair to describe Godzilla as one of the most enduringly popular IPs in history. There was a time when the idea of an American Godzilla film would have been laughed out of the room. In fact, the first attempt at the idea was so bad that a later Japanese film killed that iteration off mid-film. The new American takes on Godzilla and his retinue are altogether better received and much better executed, but remain resolutely separate from the ongoing Japanese efforts. Despite all that, the films still have a variety of methods of progress.
Return to Horror
Does anyone remember that the giant radioactive lizard was once meant to be scary? He arguably still is, at least at times, but the film frames him as protagonist whenever he's on-screen. When he's not around, the humans alternately discuss him like an oncoming natural disaster or a rowdy family pet. It would be nothing more than an issue of context to make Godzilla the nightmarish harbinger he was once before. The best film in the franchise's recent memory managed this. Shin Godzilla was an intricate nightmare that successfully brought the series back to its roots while adapting it for a new era.
After all, it's not like the threat of nuclear annihilation has actually gone anywhere. The real-world horror that Godzilla once represented is still very much present, as more nations than ever hold nuclear weapons which have advanced far beyond the 50s. Alternatively, if the filmmakers still want Godzilla in the hero role, there are countless other kaiju capable of destroying a city. Gigan or Destoroyah or even Mechagodzilla could be the new wandering nightmare to make kaiju scary once more.
Set an Entire Film in The Hollow Earth
A world beneath our own. An ecosystem with its own hierarchy, entirely alien to anything mankind has seen before, all just beneath the reality we know. That's one of the most interesting concepts this franchise has ever put to screen, and it gets discussed for around 15 minutes and shown off for around 5. Godzilla vs. Kong brings a handful of human characters into the extremely hazardous domain of the kaiju, but while that furthers the story, it isn't necessary. Most of the dialogue in the Monsterverse films is perfunctory at best at boring at worst, the monsters have far more interesting banter delivered entirely through growls and roars.
A film set entirely within the Hollow Earth could focus entirely on the monsters and their personal struggles for power and survival. On top of visual spectacle, the film only scraped the surface of the nightmarish creatures that occupy that landscape. A kingdom, complete with palace and throne, was able to form. Clearly, the denizens of the Hollow Earth are more than animals, or at the very least have a Lion King level of intelligence and formality. A bizarre, dialogue-free action film about the Game of Thrones-esque struggles of monsters in their incredible world could be a stunning step forward for the Monsterverse and the genre as a whole.
Cross-Over With Pacific Rim
Beloved director Guillermo del Toro has been pulling for this idea for years now. Pacific Rim was the masterful giant monster movie that paved the way for the Monsterverse in the first place. Despite the total disappointment of the sequel, fans would be clamoring to see Godzilla take on a Jaeger.
The kaiju of Pacific Rim come from an undersea portal and are controlled by some sort of alien hive mind, making them drastically different from the Hollow Earth beasts of the Monsterverse. Given Godzilla's typical role, he'd be a powerful ally against the monsters, and the idea of a Jaeger teaming up with the original kaiju is too cool to deny.